Railways Key enabler for better manufacturing competitiveness
The Seminar on Railways with the theme “Make in India- In Action” was organised as part of the Make in India week being held in Mumbai. The mega event is being organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Government of Maharashtra.
The Seminar aimed at celebrating the recent success stories in the sector and awarding of two major railway projects in Bihar. The sessions also deliberated on experience sharing of companies that invested in India and experienced growth. India has the potential and a lot of comparative advantages for the manufacturing sector to meet not only the domestic demand but also opportunities for the manufacturers to export for the global market in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the US.
Mr Hemant Kumar, Member- Mechanical, Railway Board said that Indian Railways is moving from conventional tendering to a life cycle cost based approach. This helps railways to optimise procurement and add further competitiveness in the system.
He also mentioned that they are inviting private players for renewables mainly, wind and solar power, and in the areas of waste to energy, fire retardancy, composite materials, new aluminium coach for better fuel efficiency.
Mr Girish Pillai, Advisor-Infrastructure, Railway Board talked about how different modes of engagement involving private sector and other bodies were resulting in a faster pace of infrastructure creation. These were deliberated in subsequent sessions.
Mr Tilak Raj Seth, Chairman, CII Rail Transportation and Equipment Division commended the efforts of the Minister on mobilisation of resources from domestic as well as multilateral organisations, utilisation of assets, JVs with the state government awarding and implementation of projects. He stressed that these steps would go a long way in realising the Make In India vision. He stated that ‘Make In India’ is a major national level initiative, designed to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, protect intellectual property and build wold class manufacturing infrastructure. It aims at propelling the economy by forging enormous global engagement with Indian industry in the form of partnerships and investment.
Mr C P Sharma, Vice Chairman, CII Rail Transportation and Equipment Division, said that it is the right time to invest in India and asked the foreign players to invest in the sector. Stressing on the fact that India’s Transport sector is one of the biggest rail markets in Asia, both in terms of urban transport and the mainline railways such as high speed trains, locomotives, signalling and power supply systems for Dedicated Freight Corridors etc. With growing local demand on the one hand and youngest workforce on the other, rail sector in India has the potential to become a key player in India’s progress. The opportunities can be leveraged through formation of JVs and partnerships, attracting investments in R&D in India, collaborations between academia and industries for skill development, knowledge and know-how transfer and technology development. Efforts are also needed towards a clear policy on indigenization and import substitution for rail components across various categories as it has the capacity of indigenisation as high as of 70 per cent.
Mumbai
16th February 2016